As many in the PR and marketing fields will tell you, there’s no “typical day” in our industry. Despite the variation, there are some themes that punctuate a day in the life of The Motherhood: collaboration, communication and innovation. Here’s a look at what we do, as documented by Brittney Coburn.
6:30 a.m.: My work day begins when my iPhone alarm sounds. After taking a quick glance through email and sending responses to anything urgent, I turn on my morning show of choice to get a peek at the day’s headlines. Staying up-to-date on the news is important, particularly to assess any impact on our clients’ campaigns.
10 a.m.: Shortly after I arrive at the office, our team gathers for a weekly meeting so our Pittsburgh headquarters can regroup with our New York, Seattle and St. Louis branches.
Cooper shares the amazing news that the Pittsburgh Business Times has named The Motherhood to the 2015 Pittsburgh 100, a list of the fastest-growing, privately held firms in our region, so Sarah volunteers to write a post for our blog.
We open up our shared Google Doc and the account leads review the current status of each active and prospective program, noting important dates and any outstanding issues we need to address as a team. We identify a few campaigns for which we need to confirm a hashtag so our monitoring team can add it to our tracking tool, and I make a note to follow up with those clients.
Nicole gives an overview of our editorial calendar for the week. We’ve just published our June blogger spotlight and are working on a round-up of social media trends we’ve seen recently.
Before we wrap up the meeting, our team spends some time brainstorming creative executions and unique ways to analyze and apply social data for a proposal due the next day.
11 a.m.: After a quick coffee refill, I review my incoming emails and flag a few of the most time-sensitive ones. Over the next hour, I answer a client’s question about moving blog coverage up a week to coincide with their media day, send a few reminders to bloggers whose posts are due the next day and field a new business inquiry. Erin, Serena and I instant message to bounce ideas off each other.
I shared a new business proposal for a program last week and just receive word that it’s come through! The turnaround time is quick, so I finalize a timeline, add the new project to Basecamp (our project management software) and populate it with some assignments so we can get started right away. After a quick call with my client to confirm the specific criteria for the bloggers they’d like to work with, I talk with Kayla so she can begin compiling some recommendations for the brand to review. Kayla’s knowledge of our blogger network is nearly as reliable as the information in our proprietary database, so she spouts off the names of a dozen influencers she thinks would fit our client’s criteria perfectly.
Noon: It’s easy to get lost in email, but I spend a few minutes over lunch catching up on some industry news and taking a scroll through Twitter and Facebook. I spot a few interesting trends, which I route to the team. I also swing by Cooper’s office to talk through the results of a recent program in advance of a meeting the following week. So much of our work is easily done over email and phone, but we love the chance to meet with our partners in person!
1 p.m.: It’s party time! On Twitter, that is. Our team produces Twitter parties like a well-oiled machine, having executed several hundred over the past few years. I pull up the hashtag feed on TweetDeck, check in with our blogger co-hosts, monitor the trending topics list, chime in on the online conversation and send an email to my client to let them know the party is off to an amazing start. Nicole handles The Motherhood’s social media accounts and she and I chat between our offices, noting that the hashtag feed is moving particularly quickly, and the hour is up before we know it. Nicole pulls some preliminary results from our tracking software and I shoot it off to our client, along with the trivia winners’ info so they can mail their prizes.
2:15 p.m.: More email! I respond to client and blogger questions about product images, disclosures, what constitutes an “impression,” guidelines for featuring a blogger’s content on a brand’s social media channels and if we can identify a very specific kind of blogger who lives in a particular geographic area (answer: yes!). A client is assembling a deck to help sell in a 2016 social media program, so we share some stats we have on hand about the power of moms who blog. Coverage is rolling in for the second phase of a multi-month ambassador campaign, so I review the blog post links and send them off to our client.
3 p.m.: With my iPhone in hand, I retreat to our conference room and switch gears for a meeting with our art director. We’re launching a new Twitter party series and we brainstorm a branding concept unique to the program, followed by discussions about some important internal projects. There are lots of exciting things in the works for The Motherhood and I leave the meeting energized for what’s to come.
4:30 p.m.: The final few brand assets I was waiting on have just come through, so I put together an email to a blog team that provides all of the background information they need to create a sponsored post. I take a look at Basecamp to see what I have coming up tomorrow and add a few additional to-dos that popped up today.
5 p.m.(ish): I do some time entry, get my desk organized and the official work day comes to a close.
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